1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a heat treating pad for a skin surface, and more particularly to a low voltage and high performance climate control pad for the skin surface, wherein an air circulating circuit is formed on a pad body for a heat generating element disposing thereon so as to provide an even heat/cold treating surface on the pad body for applying on the skin surface.
2. Description of Related Arts
Scientist researches that the planet is gradually getting warmer and warmer due to the greenhouse effect. Accordingly, human beings are sensitive when the environmental temperature changes wherein human beings are easy to feel tired and moody via the rapid change of temperature. Therefore, people would like to use a climate control device, such as air-conditioning device or heater, to keep the room at a pleasure temperature. However, such climate control device is considered as an energy exchanging machine that will speed up the process of the greenhouse effect, which is one of the global warning signals.
A climate control pad is an alternative mode of the climate control device to keep the skin surface temperature of the human being at a pleasure temperature. Accordingly, the climate control pad is categorized into two types which are a treatment pad and a seat pad.
Treatment pads are commonly used for relieving muscle pain and enhancing blood circulation. Generally, there are two types of treatment pad, which are cold pad and heat treatment pad. The cold pad is mainly used for decreasing a temperature on the treating skin surface to lower the sensitivity of the nervous system around the treating skin surface. The heat treatment pad is mainly used for increasing a temperature on the treating skin surface to enhance the blood circulation around the treating skin surface.
Accordingly, a conventional seat pad generally comprises a pad body having an air channel provided thereon and an air supplying device connected to the pad body for supplying an air to pass through the air channel, as shown in FIG. 1A. Therefore, when the air supplying device supplies a flow of hot air to circulate within the air channel, the surface of the pad body is warmed up gradually. Likewise, the surface of the pad body becomes cooler when a cool air is supplied via the air supplying device.
The air supplying device is considered as an energy exchanging device to effectively heat up or cool down the air within the air channel in a circulating manner. However, the environmental temperature will be increased via the operation of the air supplying device. In addition, the operating cost of the air supplying device is expensive as if operating an air conditioning device or a heater.
As shown in FIG. 1B, an alternative seat pad generally comprises a pad body, a cushion layer attached on the pad body, and a heating element, such as a heating wire, disposed between the pad body and the cushion layer in such a manner that when the pad body is applied on the skin surface, the heat generated by the heating element is transferred to the skin surface through the cushion layer. However, the climate control pad has several drawbacks.
In order to enhance the thermal conduction of the climate control pad, the cushion layer should minimize its thickness such that the heat from the heating element can effectively pass through the cushion layer to the skin surface. However, when a pressure is applied on the cushion layer, especially when the climate control pad is embodied as a seat pad for a weight of a user applying thereon, the user may substantially feel the heating wire. In other words, the comfortability decreases when a thinner cushion layer is used.
However, when a thicker cushion layer is used for enhancing the comfortability of the climate control pad, the thermal conduction of the climate control pad will be reduced because the heat from the heating element is substantially blocked by the cushion layer. As a result, there is a conflict between comfortability and the thermal conduction of the climate control pad.
In addition, when the heating wire of the heating element is used, the heating wire can only generate the heat in a radial direction so as to directly heat up the surface of the pad body. When the climate control pad is applied on the skin surface, the user can feel the heat around certain areas of the climate control pad where the heating wire is positioned therearound. In other words, the structure of the pad body cannot effectively incorporate with the heating wire to evenly dispense the heat from the heating wire to the contacting surface of the pad body. Therefore, the climate control pad cannot provide an even climate treating surface on the cushion layer to enhance the heat treatment purpose of the climate control pad.
Moreover, since certain heat energy generated from the heating element is blocked by the cushion layer, the heating element must require higher voltage to generate more amount of heat in order to compensate the heat loss through the cushion layer and to maintain the temperature of the climate treating surface of the climate control pad. In other words, the heat conservation of the climate control pad is one of the major concerns for saving energy.